29 per cent of B.C. kids not ready for kindergarten
Sep. 07 2009
ctvbc.ca, Mi-Jung Lee

Almost 30 per cent of B.C. kids entering kindergarten aren't prepared for school, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia compiled results from kindergarten teachers across the province and how they rated the preparedness of their students.

"Twenty-nine per cent of those kids started school not ready to thrive there," Dr. Paul Kershaw of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) said.

The rate is up from 26 per cent in 2004. Kershaw says the kids who aren't prepared aren't necessarily from low-income families.

"The bulk of these kids aren't poor, the bulk of those kids are middle class," he said.

So what are these benchmarks for a five-year-old? In addition to educational indicators, like understanding letters and holding a pen, social markers are also examined….

UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership is conducting groundbreaking research in the area of early childhood development.

Starting this year, the progress of every vulnerable kindergarten child in the province will be tracked to see if those that get off to a rough start will continue having trouble in school.

So far, the research is showing that children that aren't ready for kindergarten are more likely to struggle later on in life.

"[They] tend to be more likely to get involved in crime, not be as healthy later on, and ultimately not be the productive employees that we're looking for in British Columbia," Kershaw said.

The study found a high rate of early vulnerability poses more problems for teachers, thus compromising the quality of education that could be achieved if educators didn't have to compensate for social problems in early years.

Parent Colleen Boudreau was worried her daughter would become part of the troubling statistic.

"It's sad and tragic because it doesn't have to be that way," she said.

Boudreau, who has wrestled with addiction, has a daughter with learning disabilities who's starting kindergarten. She credits this Ray-Cam Daycare in Strathcona for turning things around.

"She is now ready. She wouldn't have been ready without it," she said.

The B.C. government says it's also worried about the growing number of vulnerable children, and hopes to cut the number in half….

"Start full day kindergarten and we're going to look at investing in all day school for four-year-olds," Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said.